Gilles Robert de Vaugondy*; 1688-1766.
Didier Robert de Vaugondy, son; c1723-1786.
Charles François Delamarche, successor; 1740-1817.
Vaugondy, related to the Sanson family, inherited a wealth
of cartographic materials in 1730 at Pierre Moulard Sanson's
passing away. He had also acquired most of the plates and
maps of Hubert Alexis Jaillot upon his death in 1712.
With ample revisions, corrections and additions, this was
the basis for his major work: "Atlas Universel" first printed
in 1757, and later reissued in 1783 and 1793.
Worth mentioning is also the "Atlas Portatif" in 1748-1749.
His son produced in 1761 the famous "Part de l'Amérique Septentrionale",
and later a "Nouvel Atlas Portatif".
Delamarche, corrected and revised as necessary to continue
publish quite a few of these works (e.g.: "Nouvel Atlas Portatif"
of 1806); often giving prominent credit to his source (which
may be misleading in some cases).
* Gilles is often marking his maps: Le Sieur, or: Monsieur
Robert.
Nouvelle Espagne, Nouveau Mexique, Isles Antilles.
This map (11 15/16" X 9 3/8') is the second state of a map,
originally designed by Gilles for the 1762 "Nouvel Atlas Portatif"
(plate 44).
It was improved by Didier in 1778, with better details for
the inland parts of present days USA and a new cartouche.
The present item was printed in 1794-5*.
It depicts the bureaucratic organization of the Spanish colonies
in America, specially the vice-kingdom of New Spain. Itself
broken down into 3 judicial courts (Guadalajara, Mexico and
Guatimala), themselves further broken down into smaller political
entities akin to the present days states of the Federal Republic
of Mexico and other central America independent nations.
No text on verso.
* On October 24th 1793 the French Convention adopted a new
republican calendar, made of 12 months of 30 days each (each
month having 3 "weeks", or decades, of 10 days each). The
new year was set at the fall equinox: September 22nd. The
Republic having been proclaimed in 1792, there was no "An
I" (year one). Hence, the cartouche mention of "An 3" indicates that the
map was printed between September 23rd 1794 and September
22nd 1795.
This application of the decimal system was much less successful
than other changes proposed by the same Convention, such as
the metric system for length and weight, and the Celsius system
for temperature.
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